If you’ve been wondering how the anime community in Dallas gets down, then I suggest beelining straight for the Sheraton Dallas Hotel as early on Friday as humanly possible. Or whenever’s most responsible. Make the logical choice. I can’t set you up for the fall.

Admission is $50 for the weekend, $30 for Friday only, $35 for Saturday or Sunday only, and $25 for Monday only.

Check out some shots from Anime Fest -2012:

Seems like a good way to spend a holiday weekend. Cheers and beers! or Juice boxes…

So, I think it’s safe to say that this past year in anime has been ridiculously exciting. Attack on Titan has proved to be this year’s most epic release to date. It’s had the most cosplayers, and introduced more new anime watchers than anything else I’m aware of. It gives us indie anime producers a peak into what it might be like to have an anime series blockbuster.

Amidst dominating the past two seasons of anime, there have been some cool tributes, swag, and multiple games announced:

Tributes – A Sandy Armored Titan. This beautiful piece of sand art was created by Toshihiko Hosaka, a sculptor with some SICK work, and obviously a patron of new anime.

Swag – Interactive Titan T-shirt
I normally turn my t-shirts inside out to make myself look like a ninja (and then proceed to Tee-Pee my enemies). This t-shirt flips that idea on its head, by actually printing graphics on the inside of the tee! If you put this tee over your head, you too will become a Titan (like a certain person we know from the series). My favorite part of this merch is the perfect imitation of tendons and muscles that show up when you put the t-shirt over your face. Honestly, genius.

Swag – Interactive Coffee Mug
Okay, not entirely interactive. But if you place your head closer to the table, then the titan will actually hide from you! Word to “field of vision”. Still a really innovative idea. Attack on Titan’s marketing and merch team is really turning the game inside out (pun intended)!

AoTTG Demo (Web Game)
Built on the Unity engine, some really clever guys over at Fenglee created a flash game that is sure to trigger some nostalgia from the series. It hit me just the other day; I realized the concept for killing titans is actually perfect for a new video game approach. It’s Spiderman + Naked Giants (huge plus, right?) + what kind of feels like NES Zelda. I don’t know, give it a try and let me know if you like it.

Attack on Titan Second Life Mod
Remember Second Life? Some genius gamers modded and recreated everything they could from the series and you can actually play the demo. There’s a free demo available at Kohime’s store, so all you have to do is download Second Life, sign up for a free account, and do a search for “Edelweiss”.

I’ve attached a video and a link for you to check it out. Check out more on Kotaku.

Official 3DS Video Game Announced
This is what I am truly excited about. An official release of Attack on Titan on the consoles, and it looks like 3DS is up first. After going to Anime Expo this year, it’s obvious the anime demographic heavily favors the Nintendo 3DS 10:1 (stat pulled out of my butt) to every other mobile device, iPhone included. Dare I say this will be the first anime game I’d be willing to purchase since Ninja Storm 3? It might rabbit, it might. Sources have confirmed that Spike Chunsoft is now working on releasing the new game to Japan this year. We’ll keep tabs on the news for you, so keep coming back for more updates!

This show is CRAZY. At first I didn’t really know what to expect because it stars singing girls and isn’t simulcast in the US, but this show has really proved itself to me. People are just getting disintegrated left and right in this one lol, you gotta check it out.

As usual, something awesome is happening in Japan. An auction is currently being held on Yahoo! Japan Auction that provides one lucky winner with an IRL visit from the one and only original Ultraman!

I think if I won Ultraman for the day I would ask him to sub in on my indoor soccer team.. Or maybe just take him to the beach to be my wing man.. I don’t know.. What would you guys do? Bidding is currently around 92,000 yen (roughly $924).

Today, I stumbled across an article on Oddity Central covering a 19 year old Ukrainian hairdresser by the name of Anastasiya Shpagina, aka Fukkacumi; which is her self-appointed anime name. There have been several stories of women across the world involving themselves in this trend. There have been many critics, but I think cosplaying (even in the extremes) is an awesome tribute to something which has clearly affected many of us in different ways… OK, fine – it’s a little weird.

You decide for yourself: Is this going too far?(Videos are in Ukrainian)

Fukkacumi would like to invite you to add her as a friend on Facebook, if you wanted to do that for some reason.

Picked up a delicious box of One Piece themed Glico Giant Chocolate Pocky recently. This collector’s item comes with an original board game that features all of the characters from the Straw Hat Crew as playing pieces: Zoro, Luffy, Nami, Sanji, Usopp, Robin, Chopper, Franky, and Brook.

Unfortunately, the entire board game is in Japanese. Our translators are on the case so that we can figure out how to play this darn game at the company picnic.